Her Night Wolf (Fall Mountain Shifters Book 5), page 8
His eyes darken with fading anger. “I did. She didn’t really fight back or anything as I shut the door and locked it, blocking her magic off and your vines. She didn’t fight at all.”
“I don’t think she’s fighting back after she lost that angel of hers,” I reply. I feel sorry for her, even despite everything she has done. I have to tell her the truth, convince her, and help her heal somehow. But until the war is over, she isn’t leaving that prison.
He nods, but his eyes track across the room, looking for one wolf in particular. I follow his gaze to see Breelyn leaning down, talking to a male angel. I don’t need to look at Callahan to sense his jealousy and longing.
“Oh, Callahan,” I say. “I know what it’s like to love someone and be unsure how they feel. Take the leap.”
“I’ve got things to do,” he tightly replies and bows to me before leaving—and not in Breelyn’s direction. I know I shouldn’t interfere with their love life, but all I want to do is smack their heads together until they both have some sense. I know they like each other, love even, and it’s just a matter of one of them actually admitting to it.
Stubborn supernatural beings.
I head outside the temple, into the cold air and the bright light of the morning sun. The steps are full of angels, some sleeping or just sitting down. All of them watch me, their eyes wary. I’m sure it’s my alpha female title, the goddess part of me, or the show of magic that has them fearful.
It doesn’t take me long to find Deimos, his mate Indra, and Niall by the royal carriage. They are surrounded by their own guards, a mix of uniforms and symbols. The guards let me through as my own stay near, and I rush to Niall. He squeezes me tightly, kissing the top of my head.
“I saw what you did with the barrier and the witch wolf,” he tells me with a huff of a laugh. “And I’m impressed you’re still standing.”
I chuckle. “Don’t test that theory. I’m happy you’re okay and here.”
“Same, Maiy,” he replies, hugging me tightly one more time before letting me go. Deimos is looking between us, his own clothes covered in dried blood like Niall’s and Indra’s. All their eyes are haunted, and I know they lost good males today.
“How do you two know each other?” Deimos asks.
“That is a long story, my old friend,” Niall replies. “Maybe when we have a drink in our hands, I will explain it to you.”
“What do the wolves even drink in this pack?” Deimos questions me. “It’s old and I expect some alpha has a secret trove of decent wine.”
“You’d have to ask the alphas,” I reply with a smile.
“Your city, and pack, is a lot bigger than I expected,” Deimos replies, his eyes watching me. “I expect my children to be saved when this is over. I will leave if it’s clear we won’t win.”
“You have my word. I will do everything I can to help you save them,” I reply to him.
“With a goddess on my side, how could we fail?” he replies with a little humour. “Thank you for the tents for our men. They will be thankful for a warm bed for the night.”
I nod. Our wolves set up thousands of tents all around the castle, and each tent can house at least five angels. Apparently, they were used in the early days of the city being expanded and when there wasn’t enough housing. Other tents are just made of stitched clothes, blankets, and rags.
Everyone’s going to have a bed tonight, and if they don’t have a tent, some wolves are opening their homes for the angels, anyway. I’m proud of the wolves who are being open-minded and listening to my mates’ commands. There are still some who resist, and I understand their hesitation to let angels in. Some of them are just stubborn and stuck in their ways. Some feel like they would rather die than work with them, but thankfully, only a small amount feel that way. The rest of the pack wants to fight, to embrace change and change the entire world. The angel king must fall. That’s a familiar thought I’ve heard, a shared sentiment.
We climb into the carriage after the footman opens the door for us. I sit by Niall on one side, opposite Deimos with Indra at his side. The carriage soon takes off, rolling through the quiet streets, the scent of death and fear still high in the air.
“I want to tell you both that I didn’t realise the new shield wouldn’t let you in and I’m deeply sorry. It was my mistake, it cost your males lives and I wish it didn’t happen. We had to make a new shield with stronger magic...and it was too strong. The only good part is that we are safe until we need to let the shield down to fight,” I say.
“Magic is tricky to master, and you are young,” Deimos states with haunted eyes, “and it always has a high cost. This time, it was my fighters.”
“And mine,” Niall states. “But we all knew what we were risking and what the prize could be at the end of this. We have come here, and we are the last hope the world has left. This is where it ends for everyone, one way or another.”
A shiver races down my spine.
“It must be very overwhelming, Mai,” Indra quietly says into the silence.
“Say it,” Deimos commands of me, and my wolf growls back.
“Her mates might not be here to say it, but I will. She is the queen of this pack, and you never command a queen,” Niall angrily states.
Deimos tightens his jaw. “I know you are judging me for using some of my guards as a distraction. Don’t think it didn’t cost me to send them out there, and don’t think it didn’t break my heart to do so. Each one of those angels knew what they were signing themselves up for. Many of them only cared about getting their mates into this place and securing their safety. Do you understand? I don’t need your judgment.”
“I wasn’t thinking that,” I carefully say. “And I understand that we all make very difficult sacrifices for the greater good. I have yet to have to make one that completely destroys me, and I pray to the gods I will never have to before this is over.”
“Thank you,” he says with a sharp nod, looking away. Indra takes his hand, and I swear I see a tear leave Deimos’s eye.
“How is Serendipity?” Niall asks, changing the subject and trying to give them some privacy, as much as we can in this carriage.
“She is fine, happy even. Phim is her best friend, and she even hugs some of my mates...but she still ignores me,” I tell him.
“She’s just stubborn. It’s not really about you, but what you represent: change,” he tells me.
“I’m not giving up, Niall,” I say firmly. “I know exactly where she gets her stubbornness from, and it’s from me. So if she is going to act like a brick wall, then I’m just going to be strong and steady until a door appears.”
He smiles at me. “I’m glad to hear that your mates are being so accepting of her.”
I chuckle. “One of them, not saying who, decided to gift her a sword and promised to teach her ways to destroy a male in less than two seconds with it. So I’m not sure they quite understand children yet.”
“A sword?” he deadpans with wide eyes. I nod and we both laugh, even though I think it’s really sweet.
“Well, I suppose she does just need to learn to defend herself, but I was hoping she would start around the age of six,” he replies.
“Maybe seven,” I say with a wink. “Or sixteen, like you told me once?”
“I was planning on secretly training you at twelve, and I had a bow and arrows made for you,” he tells me. I rest my head on his shoulder, holding his arm. Niall was right. I did always have a dad and never knew it. I don’t know where my biological father is, and I don’t care anymore. I have Niall.
We carry on through the city in near silence before we come to the castle, and I sigh a breath of relief at being home. There are already several guards and maids waiting outside for us. All of them bow when I step out. I walk over to two of the maids who I recognise from the castle. They are twins with matching greying hair, and their names sound similar too, making it nearly impossible for me to tell them apart.
“This is Niall, who would like to go and see Serendipity immediately,” I say, introducing them. “And this is Deimos and his mate, Indra. Please take them to a room and make sure they have everything they could possibly need?”
“Of course, Alpha Female Mairin,” they both say at the same time. One of the twins looks to Niall with a soft smile. He smiles right back at her, and the look they give each other is new. For me, at least. Niall doesn’t date...well, that I know of. The thought of him dating unsettles my stomach. “The children are in the kitchens and making a terrible mess for the cooks, who are not impressed.”
He laughs and her dark cheeks brighten. “Let’s see if I can save the kitchen from them, then.”
“Of course, sir,” she says, bowing her head.
“It’s Niall, you are?” he asks, and they are both walking away as I turn to Deimos and Indra.
Deimos looks at me. “I’m very tired, and I apologise for my outburst. Today has been trying.”
“I understand and it’s forgotten,” I say. “Go, get some rest. We can rest for a bit.”
He nods and heads after the other twin while the guards stay with me. I head through the castle, winding through the deep corridors and bookcases. This castle used to make me feel overwhelmed and lost, but now there is nothing but calm and peace in my heart as I walk through my home. This is my home, and I never want to leave. I’m getting to know every little turn and curve, even if it feels sometimes like the castle is moving itself, twisting and making it impossible to find the same route twice.
The castle almost seems to direct me from where I want to go when my hands run across some of the books on the bookcase walls, begging it to help me. I turn a corner and come to a well-guarded room. A very familiar room. It feels like so long ago that I stood in this room and had my first real conversation with Reine about my mates. She pretty much chewed me up and spit me back out, figuring out everything about me she needed to know without having to do anything. I could really use learning how she did that. The guards open the stained glass doors for me to step in, and they close them behind me.
The beautiful painted ceiling looks so much more alive than the fragile looking female on a bed in the middle of the room. She’s tucked in neatly, the quilts absolutely still around her outlined body, and it looks like she hasn’t moved in a very long time. Her grey hair is spread around the cream pillow, and there’s no makeup on her face. She looks so calm and at peace, and a million miles away from the fierce female I’ve known my entire life. Her hands are resting on her stomach on top of the pale cream sheets. The floor around the bed is littered with pink petals and silver coins that crunch as I walk over them. The petals and coins are a traditional way of trying to coax someone back from the brink of death. They’re given to the sick, and the glowing stones are given to the dead.
I still remember all the glowing stones I put on Daniel’s grave, which seems so long ago since I saw him. I miss him and wish he was here to see all of this. To help with Jesper. But he is with Mike now, and they are with the gods.
There was nothing I could do to save him, but I hope there is something, anything, I can do to save Aunt Reine from this. I sit gently on the edge of the bed and place my hand on top of hers. Her skin is cold, freezing to the touch, but her chest still rises up and down.
“I don’t even know what I want to say to you.” I blow out a breath. “I’m now the alpha female, just like you, and I wish you were here to help guide me through this. It might be selfish, but we need you. I need you. Your sons need you. The pack does.”
Silence is my only reply. I very much notice that my hands still have drops of dried blood on them, such a contrast to the paleness of the sheets and her skin.
I clear my throat and look at her face. “The pack is on the brink of war, Aunt Reine. Erin is in the prisons, and I don’t know who to ask about her mother and who she is. She could help us...but maybe not. I accidentally killed the angel she loved, well, we both did. Our power explodes when we attack each other. The shield is up around the pack, but we all know that we can’t live in here indefinitely with an army outside. We need to take them out and be smart. We need you.”
Still more silence.
“We’re all worried that you’re not going to come back to us, that Soren’s death broke you. If that is your choice, then I hope you say hello to my mum and watch over us. If there is any part of you still in there, please fight. Please come back. I’ve already lost my mum, and I’ve lost every female role model that I’ve ever had...and it leaves me clueless how to even look after my own daughter. I want you to meet my daughter and see how special she is. I know you’d love her. Come back, Aunt Reine. Please.”
The room seems so quiet when she never replies, and I look down. I don’t know what I was hoping for, but if any of my words help her come back, then this time was worth it. I stand up and quickly use the bathroom to clean up, to wipe all the blood off me until I don’t look too bad. I leave Reine’s room, my guards trailing behind me on the way down to the kitchen. I hear her little giggle echo up the corridor as I tell the guards to wait at the top of the stairs, followed by Jesper’s quiet voice responding. I smile to myself, happy he is out of his room. I keep my footsteps silent as I go to the open door and lean in the archway, looking into the room from the shadows. Niall is tickling Serendipity as she tries to eat a cookie. Her chuckles are like a reward for fighting so hard. For today.
Jesper is trying to eat as much as he can before Trey beats him. Both of them have a mouth stuffed with cakes and cookies. Phim is spreading chocolate frosting on the cakes, and she winks at me.
Serendipity notices me next, going silent, and Niall pauses. She looks straight into the shadows, where I am not sure she can see me, but she never looks away. I suspected Phim or Niall to notice I’m here with their senses, but Dip is young. The boys too.
I walk into the room. “Hello.”
“We are making cinnamon and raisin cookies,” Phim tells me with a tired huff. “You look tired. Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I’m not tired, but I am a little hungry,” I say.
“We were going to have chocolate chip, but there was only enough chocolate for the frosting,” Jesper tells me, and I smile at him.
“We need to get some imported soon,” I say, even though it’s going to be a long time.
Trey comes over and hugs me tightly before letting go. “I’m happy you’re okay. Everyone said you saved the angels.”
“I was there,” I say carefully. I look at Serendipity. “Hi, how are you?”
She looks up at Niall, who gives her a firm look I’ve got to learn. She seems to almost sigh, so much sarcasm in such a little girl. “Do you want a cookie? I made them.”
She offers me a cookie, and it’s the first thing my daughter has ever given me in her life, and I near enough call the cookie a holy object.
I feel my mates’ joy and happiness radiating with my own as my chest could burst with happiness. It’s only a cookie, but it’s an olive branch, I just know it.
“Thank you,” I say. “I actually brought you something.”
“Come on, Trey, Jesper. I want to get some training in before bed, and you both could do with working off the cake,” Phim instructs. They both groan but follow her out, and I try not to smile as I reach into my pocket and pull out a tiny book. I kept it with me all through the fight, hoping it would bring me some sort of luck or be a reason to fight on if I needed one. To give her this.
She looks between me and the book before softly taking it out of my hands. I nibble on the cookie as she reads the title, struggling for the words, and then I tell her, “It’s a book of fairy tales. Human fairy tales, but they are amazing.”
“I love books,” she tells me, and my heart swells. I went to the library and asked for a book that would be suitable and funny enough. It gave me this book. I used to read it loads to Jesper and to myself.
“My favourite story in the book is the one about a little girl who goes into the forest and finds everything she’s ever wanted and wished for. Gold, food, warmth, and luxury, but she was alone. It was all a trick, and when she comes home, she finds what she truly wanted all along. Her family.”
She looks at me, her eyes saying a million different things. Gods, she is so beautiful. “Will you read one to me?”
My heart pounds as I nod, and I take the book from her when she offers me it. There’s two little couches in the corner by the fire, and we all go and sit on them. I don’t take it offensively when Dip doesn’t actually sit with me. She sits next to Niall as far away from me on the couch as she can possibly get, but she’s still close, and Niall seems to think it’s a good breakthrough, if his eyes say anything. I start reading the story to my little girl. One of many, many stories. I miss reading so much. It feels like a lifetime ago that I was in the foster home just reading books to escape my reality. After everything that happened today, this is just what I needed. Just a moment with my daughter to read a story and for it to be absolutely nothing more than that. When the story ends, I close the book and notice Serendipity has moved across the couch. Her head is resting on my arm, her warmth soaking into me, and she puts her hand over mine.
“Another one? Please?” she sweetly begs. I could never tell her no. I start reading the next story, and by the third, she is fast asleep, curled up under my arm. Silent tears fall down my cheeks as I pick my daughter up and cuddle her into my lap. Niall offers me a pale blue blanket, and I tuck it around her before standing up.
“I’m going to take her to her room,” I say. “You should get some rest. After the fight and everything, you must be exhausted.”
“So should you,” he suggests.
“Soon,” I say, snuggling my daughter closer. I head down the corridor with Niall, and I keep breathing in my daughter’s amazing scent of water lilies on a summer day, holding her so close to me like I never have to let her go again. My mum used to scent like water lilies too and some part of her lives on in my daughter, as well as me. I know there will come a day when I won’t even be able to carry her as she will be too big, and I’m going to treasure every day I can do this.
